Ava Dietrich munched contentedly on an apple slice during a recent visit to the Above and Beyond Children's Museum as she arranged fruit on a plate to make a smiley face.

After placing blueberries for eyes, a strawberry for a nose and a banana for a mouth, she decided she needed some hair. At grandma's suggestion, she agreed an apple peel would do the trick.

"I made a person, a face with hair," said the 7-year-old Dietrich. "Her name is Ava."

Dietrich and her cousins stopped by the museum with grandma, Linda Nasgovitz, on a rainy day earlier this month, looking for something fun to do while staying dry. The fruit face station was one of several fruit-themed activities available on that day as part of Above and Beyond's Eat, Play, Grow program, held from 10 a.m. to noon every Wednesday through Aug. 27.

The goal of the program, developed by the National Institutes of Health, is to promote healthy lifestyles, said Krista Nagode, program and outreach coordinator for Above and Beyond. About 35 kids have attended each session on average so far, she said.

"I think it's really important for kids to see where their food comes from and form memories between food and fun," Nagode said.

Each week has a new theme, such as "Perfect Portion," "I Love My Veggies!" and "Smart Sleep!"

During last week's "Move to the Beat," kids made heart drums out of recycled materials and formed a drum circle. They also learned about healthy heart rates by timing their heart rates before and after running.

The sessions are meant to be done outside in the museum's Urban Garden, but the first three got rained out and had to be moved into the party room on the third floor, said Nagode.

That didn't bother Nasgovitz though.

"We come often on weekends or whenever they're in town," she said. "So when I saw this I said, 'Oh, we can do this Wednesday and it's perfect because it's raining.'"

The healthy lessons the kids learned were appreciated too.

"It's a good place for them," Nasgovitz said. "We talked about healthy foods, and not healthy foods, because sometimes we have movie nights and we have a concession stand, which isn't always healthy. So we said, 'we have to eat healthy and balance it.'"